Talk:Happy Feet
Full Movie Guys i found the full movie online and if you want to see it, click on the link below http://megashare.info/watch-happy-feet-online-TVRRNQ (MarioFan65 (talk) 22:55, May 8, 2013 (UTC)) Section on the recently released first draft of the screenplay? Hey, I'm not a contributor here, but I thought it would be helpful to let you guys know that the first draft - or at least, a very early draft - of the film was just put up over on the Internet Movie Script DataBase. You can find it http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Happy-Feet.html%7Chere. It's very different from the finished film, has a much darker tone and is clearly aiming for a hard PG-13 rating, and contains the initial sliver of what would become the abandoned "penguin alien" subplot and alternate ending that was cut out of the finished film just prior to its release. I compiled a list of differences that I found, which you guys can use, if you like: The screenplay is aided by a narration from the main character Mumble throughout, instead of Robin Williams as Lovelace in the finished film. As such, while the finished film's narration aided the mythic narrative in classic "Road Warrior/Beyond Thunderdome" style by lionizing Mumble after the fact and tying into the climactic moment when he leaps off the iceberg to follow the ships, this one is a lot more personal, and that's reflected in it when it allows us to gain fuller insight into penguin society, religion and things like that which we don't get in the finished film. There's a lot of cursing. Like, a looot. The entire thing has a much more Ocker, Australian feel. I don't think it's any secret by now that Happy Feet was never really intended to be primarily a children's film, but it's obvious from this that it was originally meant to appeal to a more narrow age-group than the finished movie, which sits somewhere inbetween Watership Down and Golden Age Disney. This one falls distinctly to the left on that spectrum. The famine subplot is more greatly expanded upon in the film's opening sequences, and in every scene after, where it becomes the defining event that we're told is killing off the penguin wives after their return from the hunt in large numbers. It is referenced constantly as an event causing a shiscm in Emporerland, and is the primary motivating factor for Mumble and the Adelies to question Lovelace, after Mumble makes the connection that they could know what's taking the fish. All of this is left to implication in the finished film. As the film progresses, the colony becomes tinier and more sparse, until by the end it's a shadow of its former self. There's also a scene early on where, after Mumble wonders off on his own to dance, he doesn't end up on the huge ice mountain looking over the colony, but instead into a weird, far out section of the colony which is populated by starving penguin fathers going insane from lack of food. The songs used for particular characters are different, as are places and names. Noah is called Caruso, Memphis is called Wishful, Lovelace is Loveday (who is, in this draft, simply another Adelie penguin instead of a Rockhopper) and Gloria is called Ella. The Adelies are never given individual names. Instead of John Powell's orchestral score, there is a fuller use of a pretty wide-ranging set of music from Iggy Pop, Alice Cooper, The Who, The Ramones and so on as the soundtrack, which are explicitly noted in the screenplay. This would've been really interesting, but I would miss John Powell's amazing, eclectic and powerful score that's such a part of the film's big, mythic feel. There are certain smaller changes that affect the rhythm of the story - instead of Gloria following Mumble out into the wasteland and having him anger her so much that she leaves, she instead is the one who tries to initially pull him away from hunting out the aliens immediately after his exile, saying that he cannot survive without the community, out in the wasteland, and that they won't be able to mate. He responds by stating outright that, without fish or food, there won't be a community to save, or hope for an egg. He tells her to stay, that he loves her, and to give him a year. This ties in, later on, during the "crossing the blizzard country" sequence, when Mumble outright begins shouting the "share the warmth, share the cold" wisdoms of the Elders, to keep him and the Adelies together. The scene with the albatross is also present. Many moments are expanded upon from what was shown in the finished film - the waiting for the wives to return at the beginning, which is shown through a timelapse as the hunger of the chicks grows louder and louder, the initial dive into the ocean after graduation, and so on. The screenplay is also written in Miller's loose, trademark style, so many scenes are given only a brief sketch or outline, to be developed more fully later. These include the leopard seal and orca whale sequences, among others. The last third is much, much different - Mumble's capture and imprisonment in the zoo is expanded and, aided by the narration, much more disturbing. It's also said that he spends a year inside. After he saves the penguin colony, we're also told explicitly the reason why the world governments backed off of fishing - which is not purely out of concern for the penguins, but because this event is just enough to push prior bills to ban overfishing through, and also because it could mean they're a sentient, cognitive species trying to communicate. This last thing is a really big idea that I would've loved to have seen in the finished film. And lastly, the ending. Which is also different, and very Miller. Instead of the huge, hallucinogenic dance number we see at the end of the finished movie, we leave Mumble as he watches Ella walk off into the mist with the rest of the wives, with his chick on his feet, and worries about her safety. We then pan out to reveal shadowy forms watching Earth from way above - who decide to pull away from harvesting our sun for energy, because. . .we find out. . .they resemble penguins, somehow. Shiny, translucent, giant alien penguins. As they walk away into the dark of the ship, one of them dances a tiny jig. 10:55, May 8, 2014 (UTC) Thank you, whoever submitted this. As a matter of fact, I did come across the original script during my summer break, and it surprised me. What surprised me the most was how Mumble's character was more coarse and slightly cynical, and how Memphis (or Wishful, in the draft) dropping Mumble as an egg affected Mumble differently. Apparently, at Graduation Day, it is Mumble's peers, Gloria (Ella in the draft) and the others, that are still covered in fluffy down while he is completely molted. So, he was going to physically age faster than his peers in the original script, rather than the reverse as seen in the finished film. But I prefer a more recent, deleted way of Mumble losing his feathers. And I was blown away when Mumble actually said the S-word! I repeat! In the original script Mumble said the S-word! Anyway, I will talk to one of the administrators, NewMarioFan65, and see what he thinks. Again, thank you for sharing the original script. But just in case, I'll post the link again. http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Happy-Feet.html Dual Energon (talk) 11:08, May 8, 2014 (UTC) To be fair, it's not just him - the entire screenplay is aimed at a slightly more narrow age-range than the finished film, going for what would've obviously been a PG-13 rating. Also, this isn't the first draft. That's much weirder, and still hasn't been released.